"Faithful elephants" 
     In class we read "Faithful Elephants", by Yukio Tsuchiya.  It's a fantastically written true story about what happened in Japan during world war 2.  Bombs were being dropped over Tokyo, so the army ordered the zoo keepers of the Ueno zoo to kill all of the animals.  The elephants were the hardest to kill.  The zoo keepers decided to starve all three elephants.  
    At the beginning of the story it is a beautiful day and cherry blossoms are falling into the wind, from the cherry blossom tree over the grave of the fallen elephants.  I believe that the setting is a showing that everything is calm.  By the middle of the story the text says, "bombs were dropped on Tokyo every day an night like falling rain."  At the end of the story the text says, "…as the cherry blossoms fell in the grave, like snowflakes." 
     The author describes two different things falling, differently, the bombs and the cherry blossoms.  He describes the bombs falling like snow.  Snow is heavier than rain.  When Yukio Tsuchiya is describing the bombs as rain, the reader doesn't feel the sorrow that the story brings.  The story is strong and  impactful.  The emotions are lighter (aren't really there) like the rain is lighter than snow.
     At the end of the story the author says, "…as the cherry blossoms fell on the grave, like snowflakes."  By the end of the story the reader has already felt all of the emotions of the story.  The emotions are heavier, like the snow. 
     This true story of John, Tonky, and Wanly (the elephants) was amazing and sad at the same time.  I really noticed the bombs falling like rain and the cherry blossoms falling like snow, I thought that they showed a connection in those two lines of the story.